


Do You Ever Feel... Bad for Them?

by SentientSliceofToast



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Sort Of, all the line is is snatcher being a jerk, and one more thing, but he also sort of wishes he wasn't, i do not condone fat shaming its terrible and wrong, i hate the snatcher, jk no i dont but i hate the fandom's interpretation of him, like he's evil, lol im pretty much putting the entire fic in the tags ill stop, okay, thats all - Freeform, there is one line in here that some people might interpret as fat-shaming and it is not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:15:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29931936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SentientSliceofToast/pseuds/SentientSliceofToast
Summary: A simple question leads to a crisis on the Snatcher's part.Or, it doesn't. He's not really sure.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Do You Ever Feel... Bad for Them?

**Author's Note:**

> I WILL update a Hero's Journey I swear I will  
> just  
> not yet

“Hey, Snatcher?”

The Snatcher groans inwardly, grasping his book tighter. (He isn’t even reading it. He’d finished that one like, what, 150 years ago? He just doesn’t want the kid to see him reading _Fifty Ways to Get Back at Your Ex and then Repair Your Relationship with Them_. Besides, it makes him look menacing.)

The ghost doesn’t answer her, but Hat Kid hadn’t expected him to. She puts down her glittery markers and hops out of her chair, clambering up onto the heap of pillows to sit in front of him. The Snatcher glares at her, then changes his frown into a malicious smile.

“What, back for more?”

He snaps, the map materializing in front of him with a _pop_ , but Hat Kid hurriedly declines. She’d just fought DJ Grooves again, this time along with the Conductor, too, (what the _peck_??) and it had been an excruciating experience, both physically and emotionally. She’s _not_ in a hurry to do anything of that sort again. Rather, a question’s been nagging at the back of her mind.

“So… remember when you, uh, gave me your first contract? You know, the one where you wanted me to-”

“Murder the spirits?” The Snatcher, who had lost interest the second she’d refused his contracts, interrupts. “That was a fun one.”

Hat Kid can’t say she thinks murder is strictly _fun_ , but at least she’d technically been doing them a favor. Yeesh, she still lays awake at night thinking about that one.

“What would have happened if I, uh, _hadn’t_ signed the-”

He interrupts her again, much to her chagrin. “Hah! No one refuses _me_ anything, kid. Let’s just say… there wouldn’t have been an _after_ for things to happen in. For you, anyway.”

“So, I’d be dead,” she says. “But you wouldn’t have gotten my-”

“What are you talking about?” he cackles. “Your tasty little soul would have been mine regardless, kid. You’d just be gone. _No_ one comes in _my_ forest and keeps their soul. That’s just how it works. Honestly,” he says, eyeing her distastefully. “I’m regretting giving you that stupid contract in the first place. Biggest mistake of my life.”

She rolls her eyes, then continues with interest. “You take _everyone’s_ soul? And _eat_ it? What does it _taste_ like?”

“Oh, well, some taste like chicken-pot-pie, some taste like bacon - _those_ are good - and yours, I imagine, will taste like boogers. When I get it.”

“Wait, does that mean some taste like _ice cream_?” she asks incredulously, ignoring the last part.

He facepalms. “ _No_ , kid. Are you that dumb? Nevermind, yes you are, but they don’t taste like _anything_.”

The kid’s face looks almost disappointed, which the Snatcher can’t help but find a little bit weird. He doesn’t remember any of the _Subconites_ being existential like that. At least, not when they were alive.

“No difference, then?” she asks, leaning on her arms.

He shrugs, returning to the page, which has a delightful picture depicting the decapitation of a five-year-old. Looks kinda like the graffiti that mustached kid plastered all over his forest that one time – he’ll get back at her for that eventually.

“Uh, not really. I mean, I can sorta catch their personality, sometimes. Like, you know, this guy was super dumb, they’re all super dumb, this kid that had a hat and an umbrella was dumb, ugly, fat, and stupid, and everybody hated her-”

She glares at him, and he laughs.

Flicking the corner of a red pillow, she continues, a little more subdued, “Do you ever… feel bad for them? Cause, you know, you can tell what they were like?”

The Snatcher freezes. What the peck does that mean? Does she really think _he_ feels bad about that kind of stu-

A long time ago, he _might_ have. He can barely remember, really. He hasn’t thought about _back_ _then_ in… forever. Memories, memories, so annoying.

Souls sustained him. Did he know that back then? He’d figured it out eventually, but when?

Then he remembers. He’d taken the first one by accident – trying to catch a young man who had been too scared to tell him what was going on outside of Subcon.

The _energy_ , the raw _power_ it had given him… he can remember it clearly, now. He’d never tried it again, until the day he’d finally realized he couldn’t go on without them. He’d been fading, his fires dying out. Vanessa’s ice had been creeping ever closer, and he-

“Pfft, _no_ ,” he says, giving her an amused look. “Why would I care about something like _that_? Why do you even care, kid? What, wanna learn how to take your own?”

“As if,” she scoffs, and, mercifully, is done with her questions. He starts reading again, she starts drawing some ridiculous cartoon about a giant orange cat pulling what looks like a house on wheels, that whole conversation never happened.

He may have cared back _then_. In fact, he’s pretty sure he did, despite how blurry the memories are. Whatever the case, though, he certainly doesn’t care _now_.

Definitely not.

**Author's Note:**

> if you liked it (or didnt) maybe you could... comment? 🥺🥺


End file.
